Conti plans $4 million expansion at US rubber facility

Auburn, Indiana - Continental AG will invest about €3.5 million to transform an Auburn facility with a rubber industry history into a research, development and technology hub for its ContiTech Vibration Control business.

The investment will not only upgrade the facility, it will bring more than 45 new jobs to northeastern Indiana, according a joint news release issued by Continental and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. 

It will also allow ContiTech to consolidate its vibration control technical centre operations, currently in Michigan and Canada.

The company expects the facility to be fully operational by 2024.

To assist Continental with the investment, IEDC offered up to $650,000 in conditional tax credits, based on the auto supplier's plans to create jobs in the Hoosier State. 

Continental took ownership of the 100,000-sq.-ft. facility in Auburn – which in 1896 served as the operations of Auburn Rubber Corp. – from Cooper Standard Automotive Inc. last year, as part of the $265.5 million acquisition of Cooper Standard's anti-vibration systems business.